The Food and Drug Administration said it found “severe” violations of the seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulation after two August visits to the retailer’s seafood processing facility in Denver, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Supervlau, headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, U.S.A., is the fifth-largest food retailer in the United States, operating more than 2,500 food stores across the country, including the Albertsons, Acme and Jewel-Osco chains of supermarkets.
As a result, FDA deemed Supervalu’s refrigerated seafood products adulterated, “in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health,” FDA said in the 20 September warning letter to Supervalu.
The retailer’s “significant violations” include 21 instances of temperatures above the critical control point, and the retailer did not take action to correct the problem, according to the FDA.
“Your response to this observation is not adequate. You state that you have conducted your own examination of how product temperatures responded to fluctuations in ambient temperatures and you have determined that product temperatures are significantly less variable than ambient temperatures, however no evidence of this testing was provided,” FDA said.
In addition, the seafood HACCP plan that Supervalu submitted on 6 September does not list an adequate critical limit for its receiving critical control point.
“For example, the plan does not distinguish between ambient and internal temperatures, nor does it address the product’s time in transit,” FDA said.
In addition’s Supervalu’s HACCP plan “does not address your monitoring of the adequacy of ice, the date and time seafood was removed from a controlled temperature environment, date and time of delivery, internal temperature of the product, or review of carrier records,” FDA said.
Supervalu must respond to the FDA within 15 days of the letter, outlining specific steps it has taken to correct the violations.
